Mathematics and Mission: Deciding the Role of Mathematics in the Jesuit Curriculum

Abstract

The Ratio Studiorum developed by the Jesuits at the end of the sixteenth century offered a mathematics curriculum that was unusual for its time in that it left open the possibility of teaching practical branches of mathematics.  The learned theologians, philosophers, and mathematicians who were members of the Society of Jesus valued mathematics, especially astronomy, for its connections to theology, but they could not ignore the necessity of the engineering skills provided by a practical mathematics education.  Practical mathematics held appeal for missionaries and heads of state both in and outside of Europe and served to help the Jesuits gain patronage.  Therefore, the Jesuit curriculum provided an opportunity for schools to teach mathematics as a higher faculty, along with philosophy, but left it up to the individual schools whether astronomy or another more practical branch of philosophy should be taught.